by Sarah West
Amber, for the first time in her life, fainted.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The still waters of the sea held the Imperial Shadow steady in its grasp, cradling it with a maternal tenderness and gently rocking the people on board to sleep. Among them was Amber, dozing in the main cabin. A creaking noise and the rush of cool, salty air on her face alerted her that something was amiss. Opening her eyes, she saw a dark figure creeping towards the bed, the window ajar behind him. Her body leapt into action, scrambling for any weapon to defend herself, but before she could reach one the figure was upon her.
A hand was clamped over her mouth to silence her screams, and another sought to grab her flailing limbs, but not before she made contact with her attacker’s face. There was a stream of obscenities from the figure. Then both her hands were captured in his firm hold and she became aware that he was speaking, repeating a word.
Her name.
“Amber! Amber wake up, it’s me.” Hearing the familiar voice she awoke, this time in her bed at her aunt’s house. She stopped lashing out and peered up at Logan, who stood above her with his hand still over her mouth. As he removed it, her pulse returned to normal and she began breathing regularly.
Seeing her calm, he lifted a hand to his cheek, where a red welt had begun to form. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t attack me anymore.”
Fully awake now and aware of her surroundings, she found her temper flaring. She hadn’t seen him since earlier that evening after the confrontation with his parents. Once she had been revived from her unprecedented fainting episode, Logan’s family had whisked him away to catch up on what had apparently been a two and a half year absence. He had had only enough time to send her an apologetic glance before they were separated and she was ushered downstairs to find her worried relatives.
After avoiding most of their questions on the carriage ride home, Amber excused herself and went upstairs to her bedroom, undressed, and got into bed. It had taken her hours to fall asleep, and only to be awakened again in the most unpleasant manner, so she was feeling quite irate.
“Yes, well I’d appreciate a little warning the next time you attempt to surprise me with your sudden appearance. My body is having difficulty dealing with the stress.”
His hand dropped to his side, the redness on his face already fading to a dull pink. “Then let me be the first to tell you I’ll be returning tomorrow morning, bright and early, to ask your uncle for your hand in marriage.”
Amber gasped as a gust of wind blew the unhinged window open, causing her to shiver. “Marriage?”
“You must have known this would be the consequence of being caught in a compromising situation, didn’t you?” He crossed to the window and pulled it closed, locking it against the impending storm. He returned to the bed and sat beside her. “When we spoke about marriage on the Shadow you were just as appalled by the idea as you are now. Are you against the institution itself, or is it just me you disagree with? Would I really make such a terrible husband?”
“The only thing wrong with marriage is that you expect me to marry a stranger.”
“A stranger?” Logan reeled back, looking shocked. “Amber, it’s me.”
She shrugged off the hand he tried to put on her shoulder and stood. “I don’t even know who you are! I let you into my heart, and you couldn’t even trust me enough to confide in me the most important thing about yourself: your identity. How can I ever trust you now? You have a family, Logan, a wonderful, caring family, and you let me believe that you were a pirate…” she froze. “Hold on, is that even what you are? How does your family feel about you murdering and plundering?
He shifted his weight uncomfortably. “If we’re getting technical about titles, then no, I’m not a real pirate. I’m a privateer.”
“A what?”
“A privateer. Essentially, I’m a legal pirate for hire, under the employment of England.”
She threw up her hands. “Perfect! So you rape and pillage for Queen and Country, is that correct?”
“Amber,” he growled, “I am not a bloody Viking, and I’ve never raped anyone. Now will you keep your voice down? You’re going to wake up the entire house, and the last thing we need is to be caught in flagrante delicto twice in one evening. Now listen,” he said, cutting her off, “my methods may have been unorthodox but I did what I thought was best to protect my country, both physically and economically.”
She crossed her arms. “So you admit you’re British now? Do you have an accent?”
He sighed, and abandoned his accent for an English one. “Would you prefer if I did?”
“No.”
“Then what do you want me to do? How can I make this right?”
“Just tell me why.”
He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. Outside, rain had begun to fall. “Why what?”
“Why do you do it? Why would you leave your stable life, your loving family and just sail away? You are the eldest son of an earl, and with that comes responsibilities. How could you abandon them?”
“Damn it, because I’m not the oldest son!” Logan cried. “Or, at least I wasn’t supposed to be.”
Astounded by his sudden outburst, and starving to learn anything about his life before her, Amber sat beside him and took his hand, waiting for him to continue. “It was a long time ago. His name was Marcus, and he was three years older than me. He was so serious, so righteous and so damn perfect—and so very unlike me. I was a devilish child, always looking for trouble and always finding it tenfold.
“Marcus and I were never close, but I did love him. I also secretly admired him. I envied the way he got on with my father, and how easy it was for him to be the impeccable son. He died when I was eighteen.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was no one’s fault really, save his own. He was walking down the street one night, most likely having given up his cab to a poor, destitute family, when he came across a woman in the alley being accosted by three men.”
“And he tried to save her? Perhaps you aren’t so different after all,” she said, remembering the way he had protected her in Tortuga.
“Yes, but I would have just killed the bastards up front and gotten it over with. Marcus,” he asserted, rolling his eyes, “tried to reason with them. He found himself with a bullet in his stomach. According to the girl, he drew his sword and gutted one of the men and scared the other two away before he bled out. She stayed with him until he died, and then she confessed the entire story to the police, who alerted my father.
She squeezed his hand. “What happened then?”
“While my family grieved I hunted down the two men who had escaped and killed them. My father has never mentioned it, but when their bodies were found in the Thames I could swear he looked at me approvingly. To this day, he is the only person who knows it was I who avenged my brother’s death. But it changed nothing. Marcus was gone, and I was suddenly the eldest son. I was young and I was reckless. I had just turned eighteen; I had discovered women, alcohol and gambling, and I found the shoes I was supposed to be filling were too big for me. My parents never expressed their disappointment, but I knew that if I stayed at home I would do something to embarrass my family. So I left and joined the Navy.”
“How did you become a pirate?” He raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, how did you become a privateer?”
“I fought in the Navy for several years and, despite my insubordinate attitude, quickly climbed the ranks until I was Captain of my own ship. I suppose my wild approach was gaining attention, for after seven months I was called before the Queen and offered a new position.”
“You met the Queen? What was she like?”
“Would you like to hear about the Queen, or would you like me to continue with this damn story I know you’re so eager to hear?” When she expressed her desire for him to continue, he laughed and pulled her across his lap. “That’s what I thought. Now, I had to appear to be a real pirate for the plan to work, so for a w
hile, I was. I joined a crew and began stirring discontent about their own Captain until they mutinied and put me in charge. It was a small ship but it was powerful, and I used it to commandeer a larger Spanish ship, and then I used that one to take down an even more powerful one, and so on until I had the Imperial Shadow, a crew I could trust, and a reputation.”
“And the name el Tigre?”
“One of my first marks was a corrupt Navy ship that was smuggling goods to Spain. As we pulled alongside her, I recognized several of the men, including the Captain. Not wanting to be recognized myself, I did the only thing I could think of at the time to disguise myself: I stuck my fingers into a barrel of sealing tar and streaked it across my face. Not only did it keep my identity hidden, but it also worked effectively as a scare tactic. I used it for several months until I grew tired of scrubbing the damn stuff off, but by then the name had caught on and I found I no longer needed it.”
“How would you know which ships to take?”
“I would meet with agents of the crown who would give me a list. Your ship was on my most recent one.”
Amber peered up into his face. “The Queen Charlotte? What could poor Captain Watson have done to upset the British Government?”
“Your beloved Captain Watson was smuggling documents back and forth between the colonies and Great Britain, conspiring against the Queen.”
“Oh, I had no idea!”
“Of course you didn’t. I’m not sure even his men knew what his true purpose was. In any case, he’s finished now and we can put the whole event behind us and move on.” Amber shifted restlessly on his lap. He gave her a quizzical look. “Or are we not moving on?”
“Since you were finally honest with me, I have a secret of my own to confess.”
He shifted her off of his lap and onto the bed beside him. “Amber, are you…” Following his gaze down to her belly, covered by the folds of her nightgown, she laughed.
“Pregnant? No, it’s not that, don’t worry.” She ignored what appeared to be disappointment cross his face, and continued. “That first time you asked me to marry you, back on the ship, it took everything I had to say no. I wanted to say yes, I truly did. But because of who I was and who I thought you were I had to turn you down, and it was excruciatingly difficult.”
“I remember that day well. You wanted me to believe you detested me and tried your hardest to convince me it was true. Why?”
“Because I was afraid that if you knew how much I truly cared you would force the wedding, and then my uncle would find out about the will and I would lose everything.”
“Sweetheart, what will are you talking about?”
“My father wrote a second will before he died, and concealed it. My mother kept it a secret from me until she was on her own deathbed, probably because she never thought she would die before seeing me married.” She took a deep breath. “The will stated that should my mother die before I was wed, the total control of the Townsend family estates would be turned over to my guardian.” She looked up at him, and saw that he was listening intently. “I assume my father intended for his own family to look after me in that situation, but because my mother moved to the colonies, guardianship was granted to her brother Neil, my uncle. He…he’s an awful man. He’s addicted to alcohol and gambling, and more than once we caught him stealing from our house to pay off his debts. If he discovered that my mother’s estate now belonged to him, he would dismiss the help and tear apart the house, piece by piece until there was nothing left. I couldn’t let that happen to everything my mother worked so hard for and took so much pride in. So I left right away without telling Neil about the will, and boarded a ship sailing for England to find a husband.”
“What stopped you from searching for one in Boston, or marrying me when I asked?”
“Because the will also stated that my future husband must be in possession of a title equal to or greater than my own.”
He took her hand in his. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“For the same reason you neglected to tell me you were the son of an Earl. We both wanted to forget who we were, and what responsibilities waited for us at the other end of our journey.”
He was silent as he thought about this. Then he asked, “Do you have the will with you?”
She nodded and stood, wrapping a dressing gown around herself as she walked over to the writing desk. She took A Midsummer Night’s Dream down, opened it to the front cover and freed the will from behind the lining. She handed it to Logan and rejoined him on the bed.
“So you left before showing this to anyone?” he asked after studying the document for several minutes.
“I thought if I could find a husband as soon as possible, Neil would never even have to know what was lawfully his. I left things in the capable hands of Maxwell, our family butler.”
“I wish you had shown me this earlier,” he told her with a smile.
“Why?”
“Because not only would I have told you about my damn title, but I would have been able to point out that this isn’t a legally binding document.”
She snatched the paper from his hands. “What do you mean?”
“There are no signatures at the bottom, by his hand or any witnesses. It also fails to renounce the first will, which I assume was read at the time of his death. All of these factors invalidate this as a proper will.”
“Are you absolutely certain of this?”
“I read a number of books about law after joining the navy, trying to convince myself that once my wanderlust had faded I’d be able to settle down to a normal job.”
Amber was quiet for several minutes. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. “So you mean to tell me that this piece of paper is just—”
“A piece of paper, yes. I assumed you’d be happy to hear it,” he confessed.
“I’m not certain how I feel. On the one hand, I am elated that I no longer have to worry about my uncle. But you have to understand that I’m just now finding out that my motivations since reading the will, everything that has brought me to this point, have been misguided and wrong. I’m embarrassed and disappointed and ecstatic all at once.” She buried her head in her hands. “I am such a fool. I never even thought to have the will looked at.”
“But then you never would have met me,” he said with a smile.
Amber groaned. “Oh yes, meeting you has done wonders to uncomplicate my life.”
Laughing, Logan placed an arm around her shoulders. “I don’t suppose it has, no. But we’ve had a bit of fun, haven’t we?” Amber lifted her head up to stare at him. Then, without saying a word, she slid out of her dressing gown and pulled her shift over her head. A flash of lightning illuminated her naked body in the dark room. “Amber, dear, what are you doing?”
“Something uncomplicated,” she replied as she began unbuttoning his shirt. His hands stayed her progress.
“Are you certain you want this right now? You’ve had a long, emotionally confusing day.”
“That’s why I need this. I’m tired of thinking, and for now I just want to feel.”
He nodded in understanding, and then he was kissing her, his hand dropping away to let her continue disrobing him. When she had finished with his shirt, he stripped off his boots and pants and pushed her gently back onto the bed.
As the rain pounded against the window he made love to her with a gentleness that brought tears to her eyes, the storm fading into the background as they moved together as one. They were deaf to the claps of thunder rumbling through the night. They found no need for the brief flashes that spotlighted their intertwined bodies. In those moments they were the only two people in the world, and that was all they needed.
Earlier they had been starved for each other’s touch, but now they were able to take their time, exploring and caressing one another without a sense of urgency. The build up was so gradual that Amber’s release caught her off guard. With a cry of surprise, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him c
loser as the waves rolled through her body, leaving her weak and shaking. Logan’s own shuddering climax followed a moment later.
Satiated, they lay there in a tangle of arms and legs, unwilling to move and break the spell that had been cast over them. Finally Logan rolled onto his side and gathered her in his arms, kissing her on top of her head.
“The storm passed,” Amber noticed as she snuggled up closer to him, placing her head on his warm chest.
“Hm?” He looked out the window and saw the water running down the glass. “Oh. I hadn’t noticed that it was raining.”
There was a quiet knock at the door and Amber jumped to her feet in panic. “Hide!” she hissed, snatching up her dressing gown and pulling it around her to hide her nakedness. When she turned back to the bed Logan was gone.
Taking a deep breath she opened the door a crack and peeked out. Her cousin was standing in the hallway, holding a candle and looking concerned.
“Olivia, what are you doing up at this hour?”
“I couldn’t sleep because of the storm, and I was on my way downstairs to fetch a glass of milk when I thought I heard voices coming from your room. Is everything all right?” she asked, trying to peer around the doorframe. Amber moved to block her cousin’s view and smiled.
“Of course everything is all right,” she affirmed. “It’s no longer storming out, so why don’t you go back to your room and try and get some sleep?”
Olivia looked unconvinced. “You’re certain you aren’t hiding anything in there? Or anyone?”
“I’m certain,” Amber replied, and with a prayer that Logan was still hidden she swung the door open to reveal her empty room. Olivia stepped inside and looked around, using her candle as a light source. When she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary she shrugged and went back into the hallway.
“I’m sorry for waking you.”
“It’s all right,” Amber told her with a forced smile.
“I guess I’ll just go back to bed then. Goodnight.” With a frown, she turned and shuffled down the hallway, her shoulders sagging.
